Calling All Moms: Get The Heck Off Facebook!

Facebook is a great tool for staying in touch with friends, sharing pictures and videos, playing games and more, but many of us spend way too much time on the social site, stalking the walls of our long lost junior high friends and playing Farmville when we could be doing something constructive…like playing with our kids. Ad agency creative director Gerry Graf has had enough of it. In a new online video campaign, Graf and MomFilter.com encourage moms to log off Facebook…at least for a little while…and spend some time with their kids.
Gerry Graf, longtime TBWA\Chiat\Day and Saatchi & Saatchi creative director created the new campaign, called ‘The Log Off’, with his new ad agency, Barton F. Graf 9000. Graf told Adweek about the inspiration behind the campaign. He said, “I had this idea about promoting online moderation and shared it with [director] Harold Einstein, and the piece was born. When we were thinking, ‘Who is this for?’ the idea of using the mother as a central character resonated, and we tapped into our partner MomFilter.com through friends of Harold’s as the ideal way to reach that audience.”

The video, a song lip-synched by children pleading with their mommies to get off Facebook and play with them, really puts the guilt trip on moms who spend too much time on Facebook. Even if you haven’t taken things to the extreme like Shannon Johnson, the mom who got 10 years after her son drowned while she was occupied with Facebook, the social site still could be wasting valuable time that you could be spending with your kids.

I should point out that the video portrays the most extreme version of child neglect due to Facebook. I’m betting that most of you mothers out there are not giving your kids the cold shoulder when they ask you to stop Facebooking and come play with them, and I’m also guessing that your children wouldn’t have to pry your computer out of your cold, dead hands to get you to stop. But it does offer up some food for thought.

The video is on display at TheLogOff.org, with the following message: “Thank you for visiting TheLogOff.org. But, the whole point is to log off your computer, at least for a little while. So, scram.” Graf’s campaign isn’t asking moms to cancel their Facebook accounts or even to stop using Facebook entirely. Rather, Graf just wants to you step back and think about how you could use your time more wisely.

The video has 28,000 views so far, since it was uploaded on May 2, 2011. I think it may have had more views with better metadata…the title is simply ‘TheLogOff.org’ and there is no description (hint hint: BFG9000 check out our post on YouTube metadata).

Check out the video below and let us know what you think about the campaign in the comments below. Do you think the video is a little bit extreme? Do you know a mom who spends time on Facebook when she could be playing with her kids?

Megan O’Neill is the resident web video enthusiast here at Social Times. Megan covers everything from the latest viral videos to online video news and tips, and has a passion for bizarre, original and revolutionary content and ideas.

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